Lawlor's claim of political donations 'nonsense'

Mahon Tribunal: An English property executive has described as "absolute nonsense" Mr Liam Lawlor's claim that his company's payments of more than £70,000 to the former TD were political donations.

Mr Raymond Mould, a former managing director of Arlington Securities, said the payments were consultancy fees for the TD's assistance in developing a shopping centre at Bachelor's Walk in Dublin. Arlington and Mr Tom Gilmartin were jointly involved in the scheme.

Arlington never made political donations to anyone, he told Mr Lawlor, who was representing himself.

Mr Lawlor said Mr Mould was incorrect. "The payments I got were political contributions. I did absolutely no consultancy work for Arlington."

Mr Mould said Mr Lawlor's engagement as a consultant arose from his arrival, uninvited, at a meeting between Mr Gilmartin and Arlington executives in London in May 1988.

He said he was at this meeting with Mr Gilmartin and another Arlington executive, Mr Ted Dadley, when the receptionist rang through to say that Mr Lawlor was downstairs. He hadn't met Mr Lawlor before.

Those present decided to ask him to join the meeting. Mr Lawlor said that as a TD he could be helpful to Arlington in seeing the company through the corridors of power in Dublin.

"We felt we had nothing to lose by having Liam Lawlor on board," Mr Mould said.

It was agreed to pay him a consultancy fee of £3,500 a month. Mr Lawlor didn't seek a political donation and was never paid one.

He was paid the £3,500 fee over a period of 10 months, after which Mr Gilmartin terminated the arrangement.

The politician later received a cheque for £33,000 sterling directly from Arlington.

Mr Mould said he knew nothing about this payment but he assumed it would have been paid against a proper invoice.

He described as "absolute nonsense" Mr Lawlor's claim that the payments were political donations.

Arlington was not in the habit of making political donations and never made donations to political parties in Ireland, he said.

In his cross-examination, Mr Lawlor pointed out that gardaí interviewed Mr Mould and Mr Dadley in 1990 during an investigation into Mr Gilmartin's allegations of planning corruption. In their report, they quoted the two property executives as saying that "there was no offer by Liam Lawlor to act as a consultant and no fee or benefit was given or suggested by either side".

The gardaí also noted that their account of the London meeting differed substantially from that of Mr Gilmartin.

Mr Mould said he couldn't remember meeting the gardaí, or making these statements.

He told Mr Lawlor that Arlington lost "millions" when the Bachelor's Walk project collapsed. Ultimately, he felt responsible for this.

Mr Lawlor asked why, if Arlington lost millions on the project, it had paid Mr Gilmartin £1.25 million at the end.

Mr Mould said he didn't know.

Mr Lawlor pointed out that Mr Mould was responsible for paying £1.25 million to the 20 per cent shareholder in a project that was losing millions.

He asked whether Mr Mould was fit to hold office as a director when he couldn't remember such "vast" payments.

Mr Mould said the events occurred 14 years ago.

Mr Lawlor asked what "bolt of lightning" had hit the witness that caused him to have such a "vivid recollection" of the London meeting when his earlier statements were silent on the matter.

Mr Mould replied that reading others' statements had helped jog his memory. The taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, and the minister for the environment, Mr Pádraig Flynn, had separately expressed support for the scheme, he said.

Mr Kiaran O'Malley, a town planner who carried out work for Mr Gilmartin in 1989-1990, said the shopping centre the developer planned to build at Quarryvale in west Dublin was enormous. Mr O'Malley agreed with Mr Paul Sreenan SC, for Mr Owen O'Callaghan, that the prospect of getting planning permission for a retail development of the size contemplated by Mr Gilmartin was remote.

Quarryvale had an "astonishingly good" location, but it suffered from several problems, he said.

The zoning was wrong, and another site for a shopping centre, albeit smaller, was "around the corner" in Neilstown.

But he agreed with Mr Donal O'Donnell that the situation was volatile and there was "flux" in the planning situation.

Mr O'Malley said Mr Gilmartin was great to work with, although it took seven years to get full payment for his bills.